My baby, I thought, the panic rising in my throat. Oh God, my baby.

Through the haze of pain, I heard footsteps thundering down the hallway. The front door slammed open, the vibration rattling the pictures on the wall.

“What the hell is going on?” Jason’s voice cut through the chaos like a blade. “I could hear screaming from the driveway!”

Jason froze in the kitchen entrance. His briefcase slipped from his numb fingers and hit the floor with a dull thud. Time seemed to warp and stop as he took in the tableau of horror: me, lying in a growing pool of blood; his sister standing over me with clenched fists; his mother’s satisfied smirk; his father’s indifferent posture; and his brother still filming with that stupid, vacuous grin on his face.